Take life, drama, and comedy. Add stage and music. Voilà: you‘ve got opera! But once an opera has gone out into the world from the stages of Milan, Paris or Vienna, each work begins to develop a life of ist own. How do audiences of the 18th or the 21st century understand the work? How much of the composer‘s own biography has gone into his work? How does opera co-exist with the other arts of ist time? These and other topics form the core of ten half-hour documentaries, a one-of-a-kind tour of the most beautiful operas of all time. Evocative visuals, stylish re-enactments, statements from leading international singers, conductors and directors, excerpts from the most prominent productions of each opera – all of this is served up in a cool, modern aesthetic aimed at viewers who are not the traditional target audiences of opera.
The Most Beautiful Operas of All Time: Der Rosenkavalier
Take life, drama, and comedy. Add stage and music. Voilà: you‘ve got opera! But once an opera has gone out into the world from the stages of Milan, Paris or Vienna, each work begins to develop a life of ist own. How do audiences of the 18th or the 21st century understand the work? How much of the composer‘s own biography has gone into his work? How does opera co-exist with the other arts of ist time? These and other topics form the core of ten half-hour documentaries, a one-of-a-kind tour of the most beautiful operas of all time. Evocative visuals, stylish re-enactments, statements from leading international singers, conductors and directors, excerpts from the most prominent productions of each opera – all of this is served up in a cool, modern aesthetic aimed at viewers who are not the traditional target audiences of opera.
The Most Beautiful Operas of All Time: Lohengrin
Take life, drama, and comedy. Add stage and music. Voilà: you‘ve got opera! But once an opera has gone out into the world from the stages of Milan, Paris or Vienna, each work begins to develop a life of ist own. How do audiences of the 18th or the 21st century understand the work? How much of the composer‘s own biography has gone into his work? How does opera co-exist with the other arts of ist time? These and other topics form the core of ten half-hour documentaries, a one-of-a-kind tour of the most beautiful operas of all time. Evocative visuals, stylish re-enactments, statements from leading international singers, conductors and directors, excerpts from the most prominent productions of each opera – all of this is served up in a cool, modern aesthetic aimed at viewers who are not the traditional target audiences of opera.
Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen
Wagner’s early opera is stylistically closer to Meyerbeer and bel canto than to his later works. Director Philipp Stölzl, who started his career with video clips for Rammstein and Madonna and later turned to directing films (“North Face”, “Goethe!”) and opera, sets the story of the rise and fall of a charismatic medieval Roman leader in the 20th century. “One can make surprising analogies to the despots of this time: Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Ceausescu “, says Stölzl. Torsten Kerl is a brilliant Rienzi; his sister Irene, sung by Camilla Nylund with lyrical intensity, is paired with a lover, Adriano, who is performed by the luminous mezzo Kate Aldrich. Also worthy of praise is the chorus, which masters its demanding part with presence and precision.
Medea in Corinto
Giovanni Simone Mayr’s “Medea in Corinto” is “the most absolutely amazing opera discovery in decades” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Mayr, born in Germany in 1763, became one of the most important composers of Italian opera between Mozart and Rossini. At the Bavarian State Opera, director Hans Neuenfels stages this tragedy of betrayed love, lust for power and murderous hatred as a fascinating political thriller. Providing a vigorous orchestral support for soprano Nadja Michael as Medea and Ramón Vargas as her ex-husband Giasone, conductor Ivor Bolton plumbs the depths of Mayr’s rich score.
Rusalka
This highly acclaimed production from the Bayerische Staatsoper was a veritable sensation and a double revelation. That of the powerful and fascinating re-interpretation of Antonín Dvo?ák’s fairy-tale opera “Rusalka” and that of the young, up-and-coming Latvian soprano, Kristine Opolais, whose performance was hailed by the press as “one of the most vivid and striking accomplishments seen on an opera stage in a long time” (Vienna’s daily “Der Standard”). With her velvety soprano, her captivating beauty and her tremendous stage presence, Opolais perfectly embodies the role of the water nymph who becomes a human in order to find love, but loses all hope when her prince is seduced by a sensual princess.
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2010
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus, the 2010 Salzburg Festival put together a truly one-of-a-kind program for the Wiener Philharmoniker’s traditional opening concert. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the concert opens with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, whose solo part is also played by the conductor. This is followed by the scintillating “Notations” by Pierre Boulez, who celebrated his 85th birthday in 2010. Concluding the concert is Anton Bruckner’s mighty “Te Deum” featuring soloists Dorothea Röschmann, El?na Garan?a, Klaus Florian Vogt and René Pape.
Alfred Brendel on Music – Three Lectures
In his lectures, which were recorded in Salzburg, Brendel, the ‘most profound pianist of our day’ (Joachim Kaiser), takes his listeners on a journey of discovery behind the notes and into the mysteries of the musical world. Thanks to their mixture of theory and practical examples, his lectures – in spite of their very high level of sophistication – are entertaining not only for the expert, but also for everyone interested in music. Lecture 1: Does Classical Music Have To Be Entirely Serious? (74’); Lecture 2: Musical Character(s) As Exemplified In Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas (72’); Lecture 3: Light And Shade Of Interpretation (79’)
In exile – Miecyslaw Weinberg at the Bregenz Festival
My time will come – Gustav Mahler as remembered by Natalie Bauer-Lechner
Filmmaker Beate Thalberg has crafted a docu-drama based on a little- known source of information on Gustav Mahler, the diaries of Natalie Bauer-Lechner, Mahler’s long-time confidante. The film portra Mahler’s private and professional life from his student years in Vienna up to his marriage with Alma Schindler. The diaries evoke the man behind the artist and testify not only to Mahler’s erratic character and to his humor, but also to his dramatic struggle for recognition as a composer.